Jillian Johnsrud has taken thirteen mini retirements (sabbaticals) over the last twenty years. She's raised five kids (three adopted), built and renovated rental properties that changed her family's financial trajectory, and coached hundreds of leaders through their own sabbaticals. Her new book Retire Often might be the most practical and philosophically rich thing written on the subject.

She joins Alan Briggs for a conversation about something most leaders get wrong: the assumption that caring about your work means never stepping away from it.

If you're a leader who runs hard and assumes the operation falls apart without you. If you've watched peers burn out and quietly wondered when it's coming for you. If you're caught between a 60-year-old generation that grinds and a 25-year-old generation that won't, and you're trying to figure out a third way. If your identity is so wrapped up in what you do that you're not sure what's underneath it. This one is for you.

"The only options are you figure it out or you die at your desk."

"Machines are getting better at being machines. Humans need to get a lot better at being human."

"No one looks at the basketball players running sprints during halftime and goes, oh, they're the ones who really care. No, they don't. They're being stupid."

"You're always more tired than you think."

"You don't include yourself in the people first."

If your identity is entirely defined by your work, what would it take to start building meaning and purpose outside of it before life forces the issue?

What season are you actually leading from right now (spring, summer, fall, winter), and is your current pace honest about that?

What would have to be true for you to take a real break with purpose? And what's actually stopping you from making that true?

Retire Often by Jillian Johnsrud, available wherever you buy books.

The Sabbatical Journey field guide by Alan Briggs, available from Amazon & Barnes & Noble

Schedule a free sabbatical clarity call: https://www.sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com/sabbatical-services-request-form#sabbaticalstart

This episode is also featured on The H2 Leadership Podcast from our sister organization, H2 Leadership, which helps leaders live and lead both healthy and with high impact. Learn more at www.h2leadership.com

For coaching, frameworks, and tools to help you demystify sabbatical visit  www.sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com

Most business leaders think sabbatical is something that happens after the exit. Sell the company, cash the check, then maybe rest. Alan Briggs wants to flip that assumption on its head.

In this episode of The Sabbatical Journey, Alan goes directly at the business leader. The CEO. The founder still in the weeds. The owner-operator who looks at the P&L and concludes there's no way to step away. Drawing on his own experience leading businesses and three personal sabbaticals, Alan makes the case that sabbatical isn't an escape from the business. It's one of the most strategic moves a leader can make for the business.

What you'll hear:

A real sabbatical story: You'll also hear from a leader who entered his sabbatical struggling and came out the other side healthier, more at peace, and with the long-game perspective he didn't know he was missing. His words: it helped him loosen his grip and stop letting short-term pressure drive his decisions.

Mentioned in this episode:

If this episode landed for you, the best thing you can do is send it to a leader who needs to hear it. Research shows people are far more likely to pursue sabbatical when they've heard from someone who has gone before them. You could be that someone.

Ready for a next step? Book a free Sabbatical Clarity Session at sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com. And if you have 30 seconds, leave a rating and review wherever you listen. It's one of the simplest ways to help normalize the conversation around sabbatical and get this content in front of more leaders.

Pastors carry a weight most people don't fully see. In this episode Alan Briggs speaks directly to the unique challenges pastors face on sabbatical and why this gift matters more than most will admit.

Alan spent 13 years as a full-time pastor before founding Sabbatical Coaching Group. He coaches pastors every week. In this episode he draws from that experience to address the things pastors rarely say out loud.

In this episode:

How long it takes to develop a mature pastor — and how quickly exhaustion can take one out. Why reading the Bible as throughput is one of the hardest habits for pastors to break during sabbatical. The get-to versus have-to framework for navigating congregational relationships while you're away. Why introverts and extroverts both need social rest, even when it looks different. The false pressure to return with a massive epiphany — and why reminders are greater than epiphanies. What it means to not go back to ministry but go forward into it.

You'll also hear from Josh, a pastor of 25 years from Southwest Louisiana who was depleted after COVID and two back-to-back hurricanes. Alan asked him one question that changed the trajectory of his leadership. Josh shares what happened on the other side.

Resources mentioned:

The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble Free Sabbatical Clarity Session — sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com Monthly Demystifying Sabbatical Webinar 

Subscribe, rate, and review. Reviews in the first weeks of a new podcast matter more than most people know. If this episode helped you, take 60 seconds and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other leaders find this content.

Leaders resist sabbatical for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest is this: they don't like doing nothing.

Good news. Sabbatical isn't nothing.

In this episode Alan Briggs reframes what work actually looks like during sabbatical. You don't stop working. You trade one kind of work for another. You move from financial and transactional work in the marketplace to something deeper, more connective, and honestly more meaningful. Alan calls it sacred work.

He also introduces seven types of rest from physician Sandra Dalton Smith's book Sacred Rest that will stretch how you think about what replenishment actually requires. Most leaders are only thinking about one or two of them. The other five might be exactly what they've been missing.

If you've ever told yourself you're not the kind of person who can just stop and do nothing, this episode was made for you.

In this episode:

A question to sit with: What relational work do you need to do below the surface during your sabbatical? And what are a few ways you could plan that into your time?

Resources mentioned: Sacred Rest by Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith : https://a.co/d/08K7cJdh

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We are in a burnout epidemic. Leaders are overworked, overwhelmed, and running on adrenaline they don't even know is driving them. In this episode Alan Briggs gets honest about the cultural moment we're in and why sabbatical isn't a luxury for exhausted leaders. It's a necessity for all of them.

Alan walks through three indicators that tell you sabbatical is needed and three powerful impacts it delivers. He calls them brakes, alignment, and shocks. Drawing from his own sabbatical experiences and years of coaching leaders through the journey, he gives you a clear picture of what sabbatical actually does to a leader who receives it well.

If you've ever wondered whether you really need a sabbatical or whether it's just for people who are burned out, this episode answers that question directly.

In this episode:

Resources mentioned:

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Most leaders have a picture of sabbatical in their head. And most of them are wrong.

In this very first episode of The Sabbatical Journey, Alan Briggs does something that changes everything. He tells you exactly what a sabbatical is, what it isn't, and why getting that definition right is the difference between a transformative experience and a missed opportunity.

Alan has coached hundreds of leaders through every phase of sabbatical. And the single biggest obstacle he sees isn't logistics or timing or organizational resistance. It's a wrong picture of what sabbatical actually is. This episode replaces that picture with the real one.

In this episode:

A question to sit with: What picture of sabbatical have you been carrying that might not be accurate? And what would change if you let that picture go?

Resources mentioned: The Sabbatical Journey Field Guide: https://a.co/d/08wIoFnR